1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile, and a copying machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus using an electrophotography process conveys paper as a recording medium accommodated in a paper feeding unit to an image forming unit through a paper-feeding conveying path and transfers a toner image formed by the image forming unit onto the paper. The paper onto which the toner image has been transferred is conveyed to a fixing unit and the toner image on the paper is fixed. The paper onto which the toner image has been fixed is conveyed to a discharge tray through a discharge conveying path or is conveyed to a reverse conveying path. The paper conveyed to the reverse conveying path is reversed and conveyed to the image forming unit again, and a toner image is transferred onto the back surface of the paper.
Japanese Patent No. 4340039 describes an image forming apparatus including a drawer unit that accommodates therein the above-mentioned paper-feeding conveying path and the above-mentioned reverse conveying path, and is configured to be freely drawn out from an image forming apparatus main body. When paper jam occurs in the conveying paths accommodated in the above-mentioned drawer unit, paper can be removed easily by drawing out the drawer unit from the apparatus main body.
When the paper jam occurs, paper is present in a manner of straddling the conveying path in the drawer unit and the conveying path in the apparatus main body in some cases. When the drawer unit is drawn out in this state, there arises a problem in that so-called tearing occurs to lead to difficulty in a removal operation of the paper. The tearing indicates that the paper is split into a portion at the drawer unit side and a portion in the apparatus main body to be ripped.
The image forming apparatus as described in Japanese Patent No. 4340039 detects whether or not paper is present in a manner of straddling the conveying path in the drawer unit and the conveying path in the apparatus main body when the paper jam occurred. When it detects that the paper is present in a manner of straddling them, the image forming apparatus controls to convey the straddling paper to a position at which the paper does not straddle them. This configuration can prevent occurrence of the tearing of the paper.
Furthermore, in Japanese Patent No. 4340039, a user is not notified of the occurrence of the paper jam until the straddling paper is conveyed to the position at which the paper does not straddle them in order to prevent the user from drawing out the drawer unit carelessly during the conveyance of the straddling paper.
In the image forming apparatus as described in Japanese Patent No. 4340039, when the straddling paper is long in the conveyance direction, such as paper having the lengthwise size of A3, it takes time to convey the straddling paper to the position at which the paper does not straddle them. This causes a risk that the user senses abnormality because the paper is not discharged at a usual timing and draws out the drawer unit before the paper is conveyed to the position at which the paper does not straddle them. As a result, there is a risk that the tearing of the paper occurs to lead to a difficulty in the removal operation of the paper.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problem and an object thereof is to provide an image forming apparatus that makes it possible to prevent tearing of a recording medium from occurring.